Is There Life on a Plastic Planet?

by Mildred Ames

Feeling pressured and unhappy in her everyday life, a young girl welcomes the opportunity of having a look-alike life-size doll take her place at school and at home.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Juvenile, Fiction

134 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1975

About the author

US writer of novels for older children, a few of them fantasy - See more at: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/...

Reviews

[Kristi Hovington · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deliciously creepy and eerily prescient children’s novella about a beautiful young woman who wins the affections and trust of unhappy children (lots of affluent neglect and hyper critical parenting going on in this book) and then replaces them with identical robot clones. Hints of Shirley Jackson here and perhaps a runway for a novel like Klara and the Sun.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about a bazillion years ago when I was young (I see it was published in 1975, so I must have read it in the late 70s - I just picked 1977 at random) and it really made an impression on me; I still to this day think about it sometimes.

[DeAnna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this book keeping me awake all night -- first to finish it, then because I was too unnerved to go to sleep. Living dolls = creepy!

[The Joy of Erudition · Rating 4 out of 5]

The two books I've read from this author have both involved mysterious organisations performing unethical experiments involving kids. The other one (Anna to the Infinite Power) involved cloning. This one involves replacing kids with robot lookalikes called dolls.

Anna features somewhat older protagonists, so would likely be classified as YA. This one seems aimed at a more middle grade audience. Both stories are effective suspense/horror. If you're only going to read one, I'd recommend Anna, which is all this plus more, and has a stronger ending, but this one is very good, too, and provides a middle grade horror experience without the wink and nod you might get from Goosebumps.

Ending questions (spoilers):
It's left intentionally ambiguous whether Hollis' former bully was permanently replaced, but all hints point to that being the case, leaving one to wonder what happened to the original after the company leaves. But more sinister is the question of what happened to the original Robert and Sharon. The ones we knew throughout the story were the duplicates, and Eudora states that they were indeed modeled after real kids, but even though Addison and Hollis wonder where they are now (if they're still alive), we never find out. And we learn that there were actually hundreds of others before them, despite Eudora claiming that Hollis was the first, but we never find out anything about those earlier experiments. Addison speculates that all of the previous originals were taken away and enslaved, and that would have happened to them, too, but he has no real evidence. However, I think we could take a hint from Anna as to what might have happened.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hollis, plump and unpopular, agrees to let herself be replaced by a plastic replica.

I read this because I LOVE Mildred Ames' "Anna to the Infinite Power". This one was good, but not amazingly wonderful like her other book. Hollis has a pretty miserable life: her mother keeps trying to time-manage her into piano lessons, and ballet, and Girl Scouts. Hollis makes up for her 'hollow feeling' by eating too much. So when the offer to let a living doll take her place in hated school, and ballet, etc. it sounds like a great deal. Eventually, Hollis realizes that there is something creepy going on...

A good 'intro' to science fiction elements for kids that holds up pretty well for an adult.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book that introduced me to reading, to escaping to another world, slipping into the skin of another for a few hours. Great book

[Jesse Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Westworld for kids

[Scott Brillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a child I remember this book being advertised on television and I even got it from the library, though I didn't finish it. Several years ago I recalled the book and through Amazon (isn't Amazon wonderful) I got it and read it. The story is quite effective. Readers may recall the themes from Hansel and Gretel. Wish I could go back and tell younger me to finish this book. He probably would have enjoyed it.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy.

[Sharon Buxton · Rating 1 out of 5]

D. children's fiction, upper elementary, dolls, science fiction, creepy, mom's stash, discard